Silent Hill Draws Me Closer
by Laraqua
Summary: A young woman returns to Silent Hill only to find the shifting realities perfect for dealing with life's little problems. But is she using Silent Hill or is Silent Hill using her?
1. Default Chapter

This is the place. The long, winding road twisting and turning around the large hill, a steep cliff rising up to the left, a more gentle decline to the right. Sadie could see her reflection in the bus window, almost comical in the waning light. Full lips smeared with red paint, rosy pink blush standing out against the pale white of her flesh, black circles around her eyes from where the mascara had run with her tears.  
  
She was coming home. It was the thing she had come to talk about endlessly, wondering when her release date would be with only the hope of one day returning to the comfort of loved ones. Reaching into her purse, scrabbling amongst the matchbooks, lipsticks and loose change, finally settling on a small nail manicure set kept in a gold compact. With trembling fingers she tried to remove the skin and blood from beneath the nails, even though she could not see them she knew they must be there.  
  
Scraps of him. Pieces of him caught under her nails from the fight that had started years ago. The begining of the end had happened when she dug her nails across his face, clawing at him. It had been her day. A wonderful day at the Art Institute of Renmark, a small city in California, where an entire room had been set up to show off her works of art.  
  
"Do you live here?" a brunette man leaned across the aisle to speak to her.  
  
She looked over at him, checking him out as she would an art work, detecting subtle nuances of personality in his clothes and manner. His eyes darted about constantly, his head facing the bus driver, tilting first this way then that, one ankle hooked behind the other. "What?"  
  
"Silent Hill. This where you live?"  
  
"No," she looked back out the window.  
  
"Have you been there before?"  
  
"Look, what is your problem? I'm sitting here, minding my own business."  
  
"Think any of the rumours are true?"  
  
She slumped against the seat and took a deep breath. "Great, a tourist."  
  
"You're the great Sadie Collin's, right?" he was looking directly at her now. "The rumours about you true? You don't look like very wholesome."  
  
"Meaning what? I'm a little upset, okay? The exhibit didn't go so well. Look, I've had a really rough time lately, in case you haven't noticed. I'm not really." Her voice cracked and she pressed a hand to her mouth. "Just not prepared for any of this."  
  
"I know it's rought. What with Patrick not wanting to keep silent." His voice was so low she almost didn't catch what he said.  
  
"What?"  
  
"Patrick. I know all about him. And I got the letters. I followed you from his house. You look really guilty right now. Could probably turn out real bad for you in the divorce courts just to see your face."  
  
"Ha. Well, I'm upset because some vandal went and trashed some of my paintings." she shrugged and got off her seat, standing in the aisle. Deep breaths now. "I spent all of yesterday in the police station, explaining. Never had time to do anything."  
  
"Time to do what?"  
  
She looked at him. Smiled.  
  
He withdrew a sheath of polaroids, waving them at her and wiggling his eyebrows.  
  
"Cute," she said. "All right. Let's talk. Right here, right now."  
  
"I'd prefer us to do it somewhere more private."  
  
She nodded, smiled again and headed for the bus driver. "Stop right here. I want to get off."  
  
The bus driver shook his head. "You crazy, lady? Sit down."  
  
"Open the door right now," she drew a cigarette from her pocket, lit it. Asshole. She looked at the sweating, balding middle-aged man, his pants had ridden halfway down his butt cheek and a glance in the wrong direction revealed a few inches of butt crack. She remembered what bus drivers did to open the door.  
  
"Get behind the line," the bus driver swatted at her legs just as the bus started going around the corner, the steady decline dropped more sharply around this bend. She remembered this road and everything that was a part of it. She dropped the lit cigarette down the back of his pants.  
  
She watched, her jaw dropping open as the bus driver leapt to his feet, knocking the wheel sideways. She was knocked sideways out the open door, thrown a few feet before she hit a bush, rolled across it and down the decline. Rocks and pebbles grazed her bare skin, tearing her clothes, the thorny branches of the shrubs tore at her clothes. If she hit her head against a rock the size of her fist, that would be the end of it.  
  
Sadie's head didn't hit any rocks. After rolling halfway down the hill, she had slowed enough for a large bush to stop her. She lay there, breathing heavily. Her chest hurt like hell and she guessed she'd cracked a few ribs. Her entire body was a mass of cuts and scratches. When she felt her nose, she nearly jumped out of her skin. It was a bloody mass of pulp. No more Miss. Silent Hill beauty contests for her, no siree. After a few minutes she sat up, checking her limbs. None were broken. Damn.  
  
Sadie laughed, examining the cuts and struggling to get up. The rush of adrenaline was incredible. It was just like that time before except even better. This time it wasn't meticulous and the wonder of whether she'd get away with this was amazing. How many people were on that bus?  
  
She thought back as she put on her gloves. One old bag, two teeny-boppers and their angry father, the blackmailer and the bus driver. She climbed up to the road, the adrenaline largely wiping out the pain that hammered at her chest with every step.  
  
The bus wasn't as damaged as she had hoped it would be. Sure, it was dented in a lot of place and all the windows had shattered but it was mostly whole. At least in the movies it would be on fire. She looked around for a weapon. A long shard of glass was attached to a piece of the window sill that had been torn off the bus in the fall. That would do. She picked it up and climbed onto the bus. Through the window on the other side of the bus she could see one of the teenyboppers lying on the grass outside, crawling away. The kid might've noticed something so she'd have to deal with that.  
  
The bus driver was dead, a few moments checking his pulse proved that, the bag lady's head hung at an obscene angle, the other teenybopper had her head through a window - her throat was slit and her juices were making pretty patterns on the cracked glass shards. The father was obviously dead.  
  
"Help me."  
  
She looked over at the blackmailer. One of his arms were trapped between the seats in front of him and the seat he sat on had broken, crushing his right leg. His free arm flailed in her direction.  
  
Sadie took his hand, gripping it and looking at him in wide-eyed disbelief. "You survived?"  
  
"Hurts."  
  
She smiled gently, squeezing his hand sympathetically. "I never saw anyone die before."  
  
"Need help. I need. Oh God."  
  
"Can you see a bright light?" she asked, retrieving the sheath of polaroids that had been miraculously caught between two seats. "I've never seen someone about to die before."  
  
"Not gonna die."  
  
"Yes, you will," she said and gripping the hand he had held out to her, she moved it directly over the broken shards left inside the nearby window. Drove it down onto the glass and then pulled it free to increase the blood loss. He swore and she hushed him, watching him curiously before grabbing him by the shoulder and trying to drag him from the seat, causing the blood to flow more freely from his leg. If anyone asked, she had been trying to help him. Watched him until he fell unconscious. Kept moving his limbs to keep the blood flowing out.  
  
Then she went outside to the girl on the grass.  
  
Dead.  
  
She tossed her gloves to the floor, a terrified girl would do that, no doubt. Try and get the blood as far away as possible.  
  
Then she dropped the glass weapon, unused and cut her arms on the broken windows, careful not to hurt her hands or any major artery.  
  
Sadie headed for town. 


	2. Sometimes Hell can be Helpful

Sadie staggered out in front of the nearest car, making sure it had enough distance to stop in time. She stumbled onto the bonnet, panting heavily and making little mewling sounds. "My bus . crashed," she said as the driver got out. A cute blonde man, kinda like the guy from the Art Institute, but probably not as passionate. "A girl still alive. Down there. I think, oh. Please, call an ambulance. I think they're all dead."  
  
He just stared at her.  
  
"Call a goddamned ambulance."  
  
This time he nodded, getting his mobile out of his jacket and dialing the number. Since it wasn't 911, she figured him for a local. Who else would know the actual number? "Where'd it happen?" he asked after he'd given the message.  
  
"Down the road a little. Bus went straight through there." She turned to point down the hill. Fog had blown in from the West and although it was very wispy up on the road, it was too thick to see through just a few feet down. Good, might hold up the paramedics long enough for a while.  
  
"I'll go see what I can do."  
  
"Would that be such a good idea?" she leaned in on him, feigning exhaustion. Men loved to play hero and she loved watching their heroics. It was fun although nothing beat the rush of murder. So far, she'd killed twice out of necessity but maybe she should kill someone for fun. Then again, best not to tempt fate or forensic science. "You'll probably just get lost."  
  
"I'll be fine. I know my way around here," he smiled at her.  
  
"I better stay here and show them where to go." "Good idea," he headed down the steep slope.  
  
She leaned against the car, checked her watch. Waiting.  
  
The blonde man started screaming.  
  
Sadie checked the ignition. No keys. Hell, even the doors were locked and the windows were wound up. No way out. His screams excited her but the idea of actually being hurt herself was repulsive. Maybe she should've kept that piece of glass for herself. The best idea would be to head down there and hide in all the fog. Maybe get to that glass and use it. Better than being up here, unarmed and easily spotted.  
  
She started down. Even with the fog, she was able to see the trail of fresh blood on the dead leave matter underfoot. The man kept screaming, they were all such crybabies, as if that would get him help or scare off the attacker. Didn't he know screams were exciting? She'd always been aroused each time she watched a slasher flick, it didn't have to be very good so long as it had realistic screams. Sometimes she watched them just to get in the mood to enjoy whichever boyfriend she had at the time although she'd never dared make them scream until a day ago. She'd dated this one man who turned out to be a masochist, which seemed perfect until she realized that hurting a man who enjoyed it was a repulsive idea.  
  
Without realizing that she'd been following the blood trail, she found herself staring at the rear right-hand corner of the crashed bus. Looked around. Listened. The screams had stopped although there was a the sound of something sharp being thrust into something fleshy nearby. The sound seemed to be coming from around the other side of the bus. Picking up a long piece of glass, she peered around the edge of the bus.  
  
A pregnant young woman in a wedding dress was crouched beside the blonde man's corpse, arms protruded from the lower part of the dress where the woman's groin should be. The baby arms were hacking at the corpse with a butcher's knife. The woman's tattered veil blew in a nonexistent breeze as she turned her head. Shards of glass were embedded in her face, forcing one of her eye lids half-closed and dragging one lip up in a sneer. Her eyes were milky white and looked like they were made of glass.  
  
"What the heck are you, Miss?" Sadie asked. Nothing would bring her to be impolite, swear or say any profanities. There was never any reason for it.  
  
The bride got up, walking towards her in the step-pause-step-pause manner of a woman walking down the aisle. Her face was expressionless but a hissing sound came from deep inside her.  
  
Sadie took a couple of steps back, her heel stepping on something crunchy and soft. She looked down to see the adolescent girl who had crawled till she died. The girl had been roasted by something although the grass hadn't been touched. "Interesting." She smiled at the bride, turned and ran back toward the road. Twigs and branches caught at her clothes, scratching her bare skin and all the while she could hear the bride's footsteps behind her, gaining on her. Running faster only made the crazy woman close the gap. Sadie stopped suddenly, driving the glass backward without even looking around. The makeshift blade encountered resistence, broke through. She twisted the glass, ignoring the resultant cuts on her hands and tore it sideways, finally looking around.  
  
The Bride gaped at her. Fell. Faded away.  
  
The fog started to lift.  
  
Dropping the glass, Sadie ran up onto the road, sobbing. She'd nearly died. The nerve of that freak to think that she was allowed to kill the beloved Sadie Collins. She managed to climb onto the bonnet of the dead man's car before fainting.  
  
Sadie woke up in Hospital, nursing many bandages but no broken bones. She groaned as two cops came in. One a blonde, blue-eyed young woman wearing black leather pants and the other a pretty non-descript male whom she dismissed. When she spoke, she only looked at the woman. "Hi there, officer. Can you tell me what happened?"  
  
"I'm Officer Cybil Mason and this is my partner."  
  
"Right, right. I think I was attacked by someone."  
  
"Did that cause the bus crash?" Cybil asked.  
  
"No. Can't remember what caused that. I think the guy was smoking but I'm not sure."  
  
"Smoking? That would explain the burns."  
  
"They were burnt? There wasn't a bus fire." Her eyes widened. "No, wait. I went back out there when I heard this man screaming. He'd been awfully nice to me, pulled over and called the ambulance. So I thought I should do the Christian thing and see what was wrong with him. I saw this bride stabbing him and she was."  
  
"Go on."  
  
"It'll sound insane. Besides, you found her body, right? You know that she was deformed."  
  
"How was she deformed?" Cybil asked quietly.  
  
"There were these arms sticking out of nether regions, holding a knife, almost as if it was her baby that was doing the cutting although I know she couldn't be. She was pregnant, you see. Didn't you find her?"  
  
"No."  
  
"Where am I?"  
  
"Alchemilla Hospital," the man said.  
  
She ignored him. "Where's that?"  
  
"Silent Hill," Cybil said.  
  
"I've never seen you here before, Mrs. Mason."  
  
"I got transferred just last month."  
  
"This all seems to make sense to you and I wonder why."  
  
"We're not here to talk about me. We know you're Sadie Collins and you're here to visit family. Did you know that your agent was murdered yesterday?"  
  
"Murdered?" "I was told someone knotted a cord around his neck so that it would slowly strangle him to death. It took several hours."  
  
"Oh gosh," Sadie pretended to swoon, acting as if she were on the verge of fainting. "He's dead. Then the crash and. I can't believe it."  
  
"Where were you that day?"  
  
"I was at my exhibition all day."  
  
"Did you ever leave that exhibition?"  
  
"For lunch, yes."  
  
"Why wasn't your agent there with you?"  
  
"Mr. Doggett was making sure the police investigated an act of vandalism on several of my prize pieces. You don't think all of this could be connected, do you? Oh gosh, what if someone's trying to kill me? Poor Mr. Doggett." Sadie started crying.  
  
"When did you last see him?"  
  
"In the early morning, before the exhibition opened."  
  
"Was anything unsual in his demeanor then?"  
  
"Nothing at all. He was angry but he was also thrilled with the pieces that were being exhibited. It was a great day for both of us. He was going to come down after me and open some champagne at my family's. Can I see them now? Mom and dad? Are they here?"  
  
"They should be coming any minute." 


	3. The World Turns

It felt good to be back home. The police were all too quickly satisfied about her innocence. A situation she found both amusing and strangely frightening. How could something as odd as what had happened to her have been so casually dismissed? Of course, it was good that her name had been cleared but someone had tried to kill her and the police didn't care.  
  
That Cybil had been sympathetic to her but there hadn't been any results. Where was that freakish monster of a bride and why wasn't she in jail or in a grave?  
  
When things like this could happen to decent, upstanding members of society like Sadie Collins something had to be wrong with society? So she had killed, murdered in cold blood, so what? No one she'd killed had been important. Very few would miss them.  
  
She knew their kind. Dull people who couldn't think beyond their small existence so she was really doing them a great service. She was above them and shouldn't have to fight for her life. It was unseemly.  
  
"Are you doing okay, dear?" Mommy asked her, pressing a damp hand to her forehead.  
  
Sadie admired her mother's large diamond engagement ring. "Mommy, I've been wondering why not many eyebrows were raised over my strange accident. Does that sort of thing happen often?"  
  
"You never lived here long. We moved here, what was it, a year before you left for college? But surely that was long enough to hear some rumours?"  
  
"I never paid much attention to them."  
  
"Oh well, there have been many strange things happening here. It all came to a head about a year ago when this man Harry Mason appeared in a previously empty cellar with a police woman from Brahm."  
  
"Sounds naughty," Sadie arched an eyebrow. "So what happened next?"  
  
"Well, Mr. Mason was holding this very small baby and he was babbling about some kind of spiral that keeps dragging him back but I'm not too sure what he meant. Something about Cybil, the policewoman's, prescence having drawn him out. Quite a lunatic. Do you remember a woman called Dahlia Gillespie?"  
  
"Yeah."  
  
"A DNA test revealed the baby he held matched both his, Cybil's and Dahlia's genetics. Maybe Cybil and Dahlia were related in the first place but one of them must've been the poor child's mother."  
  
"That's not very interesting."  
  
"I'm sorry, dear. Most of things are rumours. Hallucinations, getting symptoms of Ebola and the Bubonic Plague which vanish a few days later, murders, vanishings, sightings. Rather a lot of stories but the Harry Mason one is the only one I'd believe. I've set up your easel and everything all ready for you to begin painting."  
  
"I think I'll go for a walk to the Burger Queen or whatever it's called, see you later," she flashed her mother a brief smile before heading out the door. She stood on the verandah, breathing in the fresh mountain air and looking around.  
  
Two birds settled on the grass, dancing around eachother in a mating ritual. She watched them, then noticed a large rock on the grass. Her shoulders slumped as she realized it wouldn't be good to let other people see her kill the birds so she let them dance. One of them took off flying around the corner of the building.  
  
The shriek of rending steel assaulted her ears. She shook, remembering the crash, how close her life had come to being ruined.  
  
Blood spurted from where the bird had gone, followed by several bloodied feathers.  
  
She took a few steps towards the corner of the building. Stopped only by another metallic shriek. Metal clanged against concrete as something started coming around the path at the side of the house. Steel tensed and broke with strange pinging sounds as the chain link side-gate was torn apart.  
  
"Hi there."  
  
Sadie jumped.  
  
"You okay?" a woman asked, watering her lawn.  
  
"Yeah, I guess. Just had a flashback to my bus accident. The shock to my system's been so awful." Sadie pressed a hand to her forehead, waiting for the flow of sympathy which was bound to come.  
  
"Guess it would be."  
  
Sadie struggled to keep a glare from her eyes as she looked over at the woman, her lips twitching into a smile. "You're my parent's neighbour?"  
  
"I am."  
  
"You married?" she pointed at the woman's wedding ring.  
  
"That ain't so surprising, is it?"  
  
Sadie ignored the comment. The last few murders, especially the two she killed in self-defence, made her glow inside. The stupid woman was being unkind to her and she could ruin her life. "Heard some pretty strange things have happened here?"  
  
"Yeah, they tend to follow some people around," the woman gave her a strange look.  
  
"You're implying it might happen to me again? That people might start dying around me? Has that happened before?"  
  
"Don't want to scare you but yes, it has."  
  
Maybe I will ruin your life, Sadie thought. After what I've been through you couldn't even give me a little support. "It must be nice living up here with your children although your husband's low income must make it a struggle."  
  
The woman stiffened. "We have no children, if you must know, and my husband is a lawyer."  
  
"Oh, really," Sadie frowned. "My bad. But if you really don't want people making those mistakes you should really look at the way you dress and have you tried a moisturizer? I'll lend you some if you don't have any. No? Okay. Um, and I'd advise you get your husband out of Legal Aid."  
  
"My husband works in Haesse and McDougal Legal Office, they're very influential in these parts."  
  
"I'm sure it is," Sadie walked toward the side-gate which was hanging on a nearby tree. No sign of the dead bird, though. "Did you see what did that?"  
  
Sadie could hear the screech of metal being torn apart as she trailed after her neighbour's husband, following the black suit, the knife in her hand. She hadn't even seen his face yet but she predicted he'd be ugly. There would be little arousal in this. Then again, murder never ceased to get her hot. She wiped the sweat off her forehead, wishing the screeching would stop.  
  
It was getting louder.  
  
She increased her step, deciding to kill him another day. Hoping to get away from the area before the noise tore her head open. The people in the street looked vaguely transparent.  
  
Kill him. Go on, do it now. You won't get another chance.  
  
The voice in her head made her shake. Her knees nearly collapsed as she drew level so she threw out a hand, gripping his shoulder.  
  
The man spun around, hissing between steel-plated jaws, his teeth glass jewels sharpened into points. There were no eyes in his skull, a raw excuse for a tongue flopped over the glass, reaching for her as his hands came up to hold her shoulders. It was getting dark. Everything was going out of focus.  
  
Voices shouting.  
  
Gunshots.  
  
The man lunged for her throat.  
  
She fell into the warmth of sleep.  
  
Sadie Collins woke up in an alley between a Bakery and a Jeweller's Shop. The place stank. She was lying slumped on a few bags of trash. Groaning, she sat up. "What hap."  
  
A masculine hand clamped against her mouth. "I'm not going to hurt you so don't scream. You understand?"  
  
She nodded and when he moved his hand away, she frowned at him, feeling her own throat. A handsome brunette man in his mid to late thirties was sitting beside her, a shotgun slung over his thigh. "I'm going to go straight to the police. Whoever you are and whatever's going on now is going to stop. I don't like being toyed with."  
  
"Neither do I but it's not like we can change anything."  
  
"We might not but I will. Who are you anyway and what's this all about?"  
  
"How long have you been in Silent Hill?"  
  
"I asked you a question."  
  
"Harry Mason."  
  
"I'm Sadie Collins. I haven't been here long. Just a few weeks. Mason? Hey, you know Cybil, right? You had a child to her."  
  
"That's not quite what happened."  
  
"Why're you here?"  
  
"I'm looking for my daughter, my real daughter, Cheryl. I came back for her."  
  
"Cybil know about this?"  
  
"Why would I tell her? She wouldn't have let me come back here. Wouldn't even let me come near the place but I have to get my daughter. I just . I just have to try. The baby I was given can't be Cheryl. , I don't know who it is but she's not mine. I came back and I was brought back into Hell. Looks like you're here to join me."  
  
"What happened to the man who attacked me?"  
  
"I don't know. There were these dog things and I killed them and when I saw you there was no one around. Just this blood trail but that could mean nothing."  
  
"I want to see the trail." 


End file.
